Commonly, rubber insulating blankets of the type noted above are made to conform to standard specifications, as exemplified by ASTM D 1048-99, which is entitled “Standard Specification for Rubber Insulating Blanket”, which was published in September 1999 by ASTM of West Conshohocken, Pa., and the content of which is incorporated herein by reference. Herein, as in ASTM D 1048-99, the term “rubber” is “a generic term that includes elastomers and elastomer compounds regardless of origin.”
Commonly, a rubber insulating blanket of the type noted above is generally square or otherwise generally rectangular, so as to have two longitudinal edges, two transverse edges, and four corners. Commonly, a rubber insulating blanket of the type noted above has multiple eyelets, which include an eyelet near each corner and an eyelet near the middle of each longitudinal edge. Commonly, a rubber insulating blanket of the type noted above has a generally uniform thickness, except for a “beaded edge” defined in ASTM D 1048-99 as “a narrow border of thicker rubber which extends completely around the outer edges of the blanket.”
Various models of rubber insulating blankets of the type noted above have been available commercially heretofore from Salisbury, which is located in Skokie, Ill., and from other sources. Canisters to store such blankets, after such blankets have been rolled, also have been commercially available from Salisbury.